Bankruptcy filing gives both sides of dairy farm project in Leonidas a lot to talk about

Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette / Jef RietsmaJuergen Bustorf, a fifth-generation dairy farmer from Germany shown in this Oct. 7, 2008 file photo, is hoping to open a dairy farm he would own and operate on 275 acres in St. Joseph County's Leonidas Township.

LEONIDAS — The company that owns the 275-acre property on which a large-scale dairy farm is proposed has filed for bankruptcy.

But an official with the company that plans to develop the farm — slated for an area off Longnecker Road in northeastern St. Joseph County — said the move will not impact plans by Ohio-based Vreba-Hoff Dairy Development to proceed with assembling the farm, which could include as many as 2,300 cows.

Midwest Ag Investments LLC has recently filed for bankruptcy on 15 developments in multiple states. Peter van der Vegt, director of business development for Vreba-Hoff, said the course of action was taken for the company to protect its assets and is a part of its restructuring plan.

“We still expect to build (on the Leonidas property) in the spring … I’m confident we’ll be able to make it work,” van der Vegt said.

Midwest Ag Investments is a business arm under Vreba-Hoff’s operations.

The Leonidas site is to be managed by German immigrant Juergen Bustorf, who lives in a house on the property with his wife and four young children. Bustorf operated a dairy farm in his native country.

Eric VerHey, a Leonidas Township resident whose property abuts the northeast section of Bustorf’s land, said the latest development involving Midwest Ag shows the company is “on the ropes.” As president of Society Protecting Environmental Assets — a grassroots group formed more than two years ago in the wake of the proposed Leonidas dairy farm — VerHey said he is committed to seeing the state’s reversal on a permit it issued last year that cleared the way for Vreba-Hoff to begin developing the property.

“I think they’re trying to put a positive spin on the state of the situation … bankruptcy isn’t typically seen as a positive sign,” VerHey said.

VerHey, on behalf of SPEA, appealed the state’s ruling last year and the matter is still being mulled by an administrative judge in Lansing. Hearings on the appeal took place earlier this year and VerHey submitted a 309-page closing statement.

VerHey is a science teacher at Portage Central Middle School.

Attempts Friday to contact Bustorf, 35, were not successful.

Contrary to what VerHey said about the Bustorf family moving back to Germany, van der Vegt said the family is there visiting other family members and their three oldest children remain enrolled in Vicksburg Public Schools. He said he respects the opinions of the dairy farm’s opponents, but he also takes umbrage to people who have criticized Vreba-Hoff’s plans for the Bustorf development.

“We have had engineers, state officials and people with credentials in the field tell us our plan is OK and it’s acceptable, so how can someone with no engineering background or no certification be so sure our plan is not safe?” van der Vegt said.

VerHey, 44, has cited dozens of cases elsewhere in Michigan — specifically in Lenawee and Hillsdale counties — where Vreba-Hoff has been cited for pollution-control violations stemming from manure mismanagement. He said he has no objections to Bustorf personally, but is concerned about the environmental impact such a large-scale dairy would have on the area, including the nearby Bear Creek.

SPEA will meet at 6 p.m. the third Sunday of every month, starting in September, at the Leonidas Grange Hall.